Thursday Dose of social media: Is NPR the future of mainstream media?
Twitter addicts bringing down New York Times computers — The NYT is having some problems with TweetDeck slowing down it’s less-than-robust computers. TweetDeck is an Adobe Air app, and like all Adobe Air apps, it can be resource intensive. But here are some tips:
- Latest version — Make sure you have the latest version (version 0.25) of TweetDeck. The old version of TweetDeck had a nasty memory leak problem. It would literally use more and more memory up as time went on, until it ate up all your ram. We reported two months ago that TweetDeck had a memory leak problem and that the new version promised to fix it. The new TweetDeck handles memory much better. This could be the root problem for many in the NYT newsroom.
- Ram — 2 gigs of ram, combined with the latest (free) version of TweetDeck should allow almost anyone to run this program fine. I’m on a 7-year-old PowerMac right now, powering two monitors. One has Safari open while I write this post, and the other has TweetDeck open. No performance issues here.
- Shut down apps – It’s a good idea to close and restart many apps at least once a day. FireFox is a prime example of this, as it has memory leak problems too. It’s a good idea to close down all apps at the end of the day and the start then up fresh the next day. Certain apps may require more frequency than that.
The City Of San Francisco now lets you submit complaints via Twitter — Social media is really all about being social and connecting people. The City of San Francisco has found a good way to utilize Twitter to improve the city:
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom
and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone announced today
Twitter users and San Francisco residents can simply follow @SF311 (which automatically auto follows) to send and receive direct messages about complaints and questions. The useful part of the new service is the ability to send pictures or video of various offenses, such as a pothole, overflowing garbage can or graffiti. Once you submit a DM to @SF311, you will receive a service request number. Apparently, there is a city staff member devoted to handling and responding to @SF311 Tweets.
Many journalists are on Twitter, but news organizations could use accounts to take complaints, suggestions and tips from the public. This is the kind of thing that the main @NYTimes account could be doing, instead of just pushing headlines. Or, the Times could create a another account for this kind of interaction.
Why NPR is the future of mainstream media –Mashable makes a compelling argument why NPR’s approach could be the future of mainstream media. They point out that while newspapers are losing circulation and while cable news viewers are leaving, NPR’s ratings have been steadily growing since 2000.
They point to three areas where NPR shows how it’s done:
- Focus on local — NPR, because of its member station structure, has always been focused on local news gathering.
- Focus on social media — NPR has been quick to move into the social media space and is way ahead of MSM outlets like The New York Times. They saw early on that social media could enhance their coverage and product. “They’ve also put social media to work for them. In October of 2008, for example, NPR asked listeners to factcheck the US Vice Presidential debates and communicate findings via a Twitter
hashtag. And in February, NPR’s social media strategist (@acarvin) talked about Twitter on air, including hundreds people tweeting back comments in the conversation. Their conclusion? Twitter let’s us all share the media consumption experience together, and that’s a very positive thing.” - Focus on ubiquitous access — Rather than erecting pay walls, NPR has a commitment to reaching as large of an audience as possible.
Twitter-jacking on trial: Cardinals’ manager sues Twitter – Tony La Russa is suing Twitter because someone impersonated him on it. This is fairly common, and Twitter so far has allowed these accounts to stay up as long as they are clearly satire. La Russa’s lawsuit may put an end to the fun and games:
Alas, the days of Twitter’s innocence in hijacked celebrity accounts may have come to an end. Tony La Russa, the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, is up in arms over the fact that someone other than him tweeted under his likeness and that Twitter permitted it. In fact, he’s so pissed that he’s taking Twitter to court.
So what’s the fuss all about? Apparently the individual tweeting as Tony La Russa (@tonylarussa was removed after the lawsuit was filed) made statements that the real Tony didn’t appreciate. So he’s suing Twitter and the causes of action include trademark infringement, trademark dilution, cybersquatting, misappropriation of name and likeness, invasion of privacy, and intentional misrepresentation.
Digg’s new ads put advertisers on the front page — Digg, which is known for allowing users to vote stories up and down, is now allowing users to vote ads up and down. This is something to watch, because Digg could help change how ads are done and priced on the Web.
